Council Seeks a National Testing System by 1993-94

WASHINGTON--A national assessment system should be created in at
least three subjects by the /993-94 school year, a Congressionally
mandated panel has concluded.

Acting at a meeting here last month, the National Council on
Education Standards and Testing rejected the idea of a single national
test. Instead, the panel agreed that states should be encouraged to
collaborate to create assessments that would be judged according to
national standards.

The panel also agreed that, initially, the exams should be in
reading, writing, and mathematics, and that the first--for 4th
graders-should be in place in two years.

"There is a momentum we will lose if we don't produce" by that date,
said Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado, the panel's co-chairman. "Many states
want to get in line with the movement. They want guidelines to know
what to do and how to do it."

But in a statement released the same day, three scientific groups
warned that the rush to create a national assessment system could be
harmful.

The organizations--the American Educational Research Association,
the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on
Measurement in Education-urged the standards council and the National
Education Goals Panel to take time to consider all the technical and
policy issues surrounding the new assessments.

But Governor Romer said that the short time frame is appropriate,
and pointed out that the council has only a few months, until the end
of the year, to issue its final report.

"I do not believe we rushed to judgment," he said. "This nation
wants decisions. It doesn't want talk."

No 'Monolithic Approach'

Formed by Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander and members of the
Congress, the standards council--a group of 32 educators, testing
experts, and policymakers--was charged with examining the "desirability
and feasibility" of national education standards and national
tests.

Its creation comes at a time when a number of public and private
groups have called for or started to develop a national system of
assessments. (See related story, page 16.)

At an earlier meeting, the panel agreed that national standards are
desirable, and moved to set up task forces in five subject
areas--English, math, science, history, and geography-to gauge the
status of standards-setting and outline ways it could be speeded
up.

Last month, the council quickly agreed that national assessments are
desirable, but most panel members rejected the concept of a single
national test.

"The monolithic approach in other countries hasn't worked," said
Marshall S. Smith, dean of the graduate school of education at Stanford
University.

But panel members also argued that allowing each state to develop
its own test, as in the current system, is equally unwise. Instead,
members argued, states could form "clusters" to develop tests that
could be calibrated against national standards.

"We can build off what states are doing, and take the best of what
they are doing," said Gov. Carroll A. Campbell of South Carolina,
co-chairman of the council.

The panel also agreed that the first tests should be in reading,
writing, and math, areas where there is close to a national agreement
on what should be taught. At the suggestion of Eve M. Bither,
commissioner of education in Maine, the panel also agreed that an exam
in science should be developed as quickly as possible.

'Make a Better Wheel'

Panel members also decided, after some debate, that 4th-grade exams
should be developed first, but that the others should follow in short
order.

Lauren B. Resnick, director of the Learning Research and Development
Center at the University of Pittsburgh, said standards for all grades
should be developed at the outset.

"I can't imagine setting standards for 4th grade without knowing
where you're going," she said. "It makes no sense at all to set 4th
grade standards without thinking of high-school standards."

To set standards, the panel agreed to use the objectives that have
already been developed for the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, as well as state frameworks.

"Before we completely reinvent the wheel," said Governor Campbell,
"we should take all the wheels out there, pull them together, and make
a better wheel."

Governor Romer added that such an exercise would require additional
resources, and he suggested that such funds could come out of the
federal education-research account.

"[Federal research entities are] too often caught in the last
decade's research," he said. 'There is now a new program. The resources
could be reoriented."

Vol. 11, Issue 01, Page 17

Published in Print: September 4, 1991, as Council Seeks a National Testing System by 1993-94

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.